"She’s not pretending to have a deeper voice. She's just a girl who is being herself and is chasing the opportunity to start hormone treatment. So to actually use a trans boy was not an option because this isn’t what my story is about," she said.

Fanning told Teen Vogue in 2015 that she was initially hesitant about the role, but she worked to understand it by speaking with trans kids and doing research on kids in transition.

But the actress was still receiving criticism on social media following a recent release of the movie's trailer.